Interior minister tells Senate progress in NAP is satisfactory on 15 points, slow on the remaining five
Says 6,500 intelligence-based operations were conducted in 2015
Says law and order situation better, though not perfect in Balochistan
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Wednesday said that National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorism is the agenda of Pakistan’s integrity and security and there should be no politics over it.
Speaking at the Upper House of the Parliament, the interior minister said that as a result of NAP, remarkable improvement had been witnessed in the security situation and for the first time there was decline in suicide attacks, abductions and attacks on law enforcement agencies. He, however, added that a lot more had to be done for complete eradication of terrorism from the country.
He was responding to various questions of senators in the Upper House regarding implementation of the National Action Plan during the last one year.
He said that the implementation of NAP was a shared responsibility as 10 out of the 20 points in the Plan related to provinces, eight related to various ministries, while the rest related to military and intelligence agencies.
He said that the progress was satisfactory on 15 points and slow on the remaining five, adding that redressal of the degeneration of the last 20 to 25 years would take some time.
The minister said there were 20,000 students in both registered and unregistered seminaries of the federal capital. In the past, he said, seminaries were established even on green belts but the present government had not allowed the construction of any seminary without proper permission.
Nisar said that the dialogue process had been started with Taliban under a strategy formulated in consultation with military and political leadership.
He said that after the failure of dialogue, operation Zarb-e-Azb had been launched against terrorists with consensus of military and civilian leadership. He said, however, that a military operation alone could not rectify the situation and the Ministry had formed a policy in this regard.
In coordination with the provincial governments, he said, a lot of big acts of terrorism were pre-empted, adding that 6,500 intelligence based operations were conducted during the last one year.
Nisar said that networks of terrorists had been broken. However, elimination of their facilitators would take some time.
The minister said that although situation in Balochistan was not normal, there was a marked improvement in law and order in the province.
The minister said that FATA reforms would be carried out in consultation with all the stakeholders. A committee for FATA reforms, headed by Senator Sartaj Aziz, would present its report to the government in next few days, Nisar told the senators.
The minister said that a Joint Intelligence Directorate of NACTA would be made functional very soon and added that it would be a big step forward in tackling the fight against terrorism.
The minister said that International Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) were being brought under the ambit of the law and their working was being made transparent.
He said that in the next two months, the process of registration of INGOs would be completed, adding that so far 127 INGOs had applied for online registration. Only registered INGOs would be allowed to work in Pakistan, he added.
It was for the first time that 61 proscribed organisations had been put on record, Nisar reminded the senators, adding that these organisations had also been banned from Pakistani media.
The minister said that under Schedule-Four, more than 8,000 people had been identified and were being monitored. At least 115 million SIMs (Subscriber Identity Module) had been registered in the country while 90 million had been blocked, Nisar said.
